Happy New Year!

Ok, so I dropped the ball on having some content ready while I was on vacation for the holidays. Let me make it up to you by sharing this video, a very Mega Man Xmas:


   

A very Happy 2013 to you!

Tuesday's Tunes: Come All Ye Faithful

O come let us adore Him!

Merry Christmas!

Song of encouragement: "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus"

I faced the unenviable task of choosing songs for worship this past Sunday morning that would compliment the theme of "Joy" for our Advent series, a task complicated by those in our congregation (and our nation as a whole) still in shock and grieving for all those affected by the tragedy in Newtown, CT. In my head, I knew that the level of participation of the congregants would run from "I'll sing anything that's put on the screen" to "I want to smash that guitar over your head for forcing me to sing these happy sounding songs when I'm anything but..." and everything in between.

I struggled to find an appropriate response song that would both point to the Lord to be our Comforter and Keeper in our time of confusion and need, as well as touch up what is the heart of this season of Advent: the expectation and preparation for Jesus' coming, and stumbled upon the hymn Come Thou Long Expected Jesus:

   

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Big monsters on the big screen

I don't know how I missed the trailer for the movie Pacific Rim in my last post, but Guillermo Del Toro is directing a giant-monster flick that is sure to look amazing given his past films:

   

I came across this trailer from MTV Geek's article "Know Your Kaiju: Preparing For The 'Pacific Rim' Giant Monster Invasion" if you're curious for more info on the movie and a bit of history on the "kaiju" phenomenon.

Trailers galore!

Some great trailers floating around this past week or so:

Star Trek Into Darkness with BBC Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch as the as-yet-unnamed-antagonist? Sign me up:


Man of Steel looks simply stunning:


And a very clever mash-up with the Street Fighter x Mega Man trailer, fan-created to celebrate anniversaries for both franchises: